I seem to recall an episode early in the first season (possibly the pilot) where he swims ashore and proceeds to massage his shoulder. A flashback to Vietnam ensues and my interpretation was that although the flashback didn't show him being injured, it implied that he inflicted the scar from one of his three tours.

I seem to recall an episode early in the first season (possibly the pilot) where he swims ashore and proceeds to massage his shoulder. A flashback to Vietnam ensues and my interpretation was that although the flashback didn't show him being injured, it implied that he inflicted the scar from one of his three tours.

You are correct it was the pilot in the beginning when he leans up against the sea wall. If you look at any of the old Battle Of The Network Stars on You Tube showing Selleck either being dunked or swimming you wont see the scar (I always thought it looked fake anyway). This makes me think that as many times as Magnum was shot over the run of the series he should have been chock full of scars and not so willing to take his shirt off......

In looking at the screen caps I've taken over the years, there appears to be two different scars on his left shoulder. The roundish bullet hole scar is definitely fake. This thing moves around, changes size and then disappears from time to time. But there is another scar on the top of his left shoulder, a straight, longish scar, that is hard to see in many shots. This one might be real, because it doesn't move or change shape and can be seen in later episodes (not just the early ones).

I am glad someone addressed this issue because I have been wondering. From your photos it would seem the round one is fake. I noticed it because I am re-watching the show on Encore Classic. I don't care about any shortcomings in the show. I like it. And I am just so bloody thankful to have ANYTHING to watch that is better than all of this bogus reality tv craze. ya know.

_________________Magnum: You're doing to Sally exactly what Rex Harrison did to Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. You're using her as a guinea pig for your own self-indulgent experiment.